December 14, 2011

So.. Today is the eleventh day before Christmas .... which means that if you haven’t started thinking about foods, recipes and meals for the Holidays then you better jump on the band wagon or you’ll miss it - especially if you need food allergy friendly ‘Free From’ items which have a nasty habit of disappearing off the shelves rather quickly! Note: Down to Earth only take Gluten Free cake and pudding orders, so time is definitely of the essence)

It’s great to see the company expanding so much and its even better for the Free From community because their products are top notch. The Foods of Athenry’s ‘Rich & Fruity Cider Cake’ is the perfect christmas treat and stands in (for me) as a marizpan and icing free christmas cake. It’s moist, fruity and makes me want more! It comes in a 450g shrink wrapped round size that looks like a giant muffin.

The essential part, as is the case with all Gluten Free products, is to eat it while it’s fresh. I opened mine, and had a finger or two while I was cutting it and thought that it was amazing! It tasted exactly like the ‘real’ wheaty, gluteny, milky thing... even F. agreed that there was no difference ... but then two hours later, after it had been lying out sliced up and exposed to the air it began to get dry and as F. said: transformed into a ‘gluten free’ product. It’s almost like a Cinderella cake that MUST be eaten before it gets turned back into a pumpkin. Although, I will say that even when it was a bit drier and tasted gluten free it was still nice, it’s just that the magic was gone.....
So, do buy it but save it until exactly the time you want to eat it and if you can’t eat all 450g maybe try immediately wrapping the remainder tightly in cling film until you need a pinch of magic again!